Hollywood’s plan to rush out films on pay-TV scares big screen bosses who argue that this move would be the death of cinema

Hollywood loves a happy ending — but for the cinema industry its latest crisis
may end in tears.

The cinemas are locked in a dispute with the big film studios about how
quickly new blockbusters can be screened on television. Cinema executives
argue that unless Hollywood backs down, hundreds of cinemas could end up
going the same way as the video shop and disappear altogether.

The dispute centres on the decision by some of the studios, including Warner
Brothers and 20th Century Fox (owned by News Corporation, parent company of
The Sunday Times), to begin making films available on pay-television within
weeks of their big-screen premieres. Cinema bosses say this will encourage
movie fans to wait for a film to appear on television rather than paying to
see it at a multiplex or at their local picture house.

Phil Clapp, chief executive of the Cinema Exhibitors’ Association, the British
trade body,